With unabashed hyperbole, the sign at the entrance to Hudson Park, a luxury rental building nearing completion steps away from the western extreme of 96th Street, calls the structure "The Door to Western Civilization."

The title is not meant to be taken too seriously, said the man who dreamed it up, Brian G. Edwards, executive director of leasing for the brokerage firm Halstead Feathered Nest.

Mr. Edwards was busily fielding apartment hunters and television reporters doing a story on the rental market the other day.

What they had come to tour is the most recent entrant on Manhattan's West Side housing scene: a 16-story building that adds 172 rent-stabilized units with scores of different layouts to the neighborhood's inventory.

Because the land on which it sits, formerly a Mobil gas station and parking garage, was acquired through a 99-year lease, Shaya Boymelgreen, the developer, could not put up condominiums, the category of construction for which he is best known.

The building was in the works for four years. Mr. Boymelgreen was in protracted negotiations with the owner of the land, 323 Garage Company, which did not want to give up its automotive business completely.

Mr. Boymelgreen — who said he had projects under way or in the pipeline in Brooklyn and Queens as well as in SoHo, TriBeCa and Wall Street — said the West 96th Street building was on the drawing board well before 9/11 or the economic downturn.

"I couldn't predict what would be three years ahead," he said, "or that condos would continue to be strong and rentals not so strong, so we are giving lots of amenities" and periods of free rent.

He estimated that the building, financed through the Fremont Bank, cost about $40 million.

In exchange for tax breaks given under New York State's Real Property Tax Law, the apartments will be rent-stabilized.

Under the law, initial rents are set at market rates with increases determined by the city's Rent Guidelines Board. When the tax breaks are phased out — in this case, after 10 years — landlords can ask whatever rents they want.

What makes the building distinctive, Mr. Edwards said, is that there are 61 different layouts.

"In most high-rises," he said, "the apartment on the second floor is the same as the one on the 32nd floor."

Apartments at Hudson Park include studios (470 to 521 square feet, renting for $1,785 to $2,279); one bedrooms (603 to 852 square feet for $2,261 to $3,032) two bedrooms (917 square feet for $3,439 to $4,012); and two bedrooms plus den (about 1,000 square feet for $3,983 to $4,646).

Concessions of one month's rent on one-year leases and two months on two-year leases will be offered. The first tenants are expected to move in next month.

There are also eight triplexes of 1,200 to 1,650 square feet with two floors below street level. In addition, there will be 13 penthouses ranging from one-bedroom duplexes of about 900 square feet to two-bedroom triplexes of about 1,000 square feet. They will have their own terraces averaging 100 to 175 square feet. Neither the triplexes nor the penthouses have been priced because they will not be ready for occupancy until August or September, Mr. Edwards said.

The street-level entry floor of the triplexes will include the living room, kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom. The floor immediately below is being called the recreation area. It will have two bedrooms and a bathroom, permissible under the city's building code so long as the floor is 50 percent above ground and the space complies with light and air requirements.

The third floor down is being described as "tenants storage." (Asked if residents could store beds there, Mr. Edwards said yes.)

The triplexes will also have gardens and patios, features not often found in rental space, he said.

Amenities include marble bathrooms, black granite counters, maple cabinets and maple plank floors as well as a roof deck, a 15-seat stadium-style movie theater available for rent by tenants, a fitness center and a children's playroom.

The facade, a combination of stone and synthetic stucco, is punctuated with horizontal bands and decorative insets.

Mr. Edwards was optimistic about the rental market.

"Even in a soft rental market," he said, "people are moving in. This is an international city. This is still the place where dreams are made."

It's excellent looking, but a little too short. If not for these stupid NIMBY's and the helight limits they pressured the city government to impose, it would easily rise ten maybe fifteen floors higher.

NoyokA

June 20th, 2003, 02:15 PM

Not a bad looking building but it belongs in Sim City.

Edward

June 20th, 2003, 05:06 PM

At 917 sf it's a tiny 2-bedroom, $3,200-$3,500 (with the month off included)